Walls, Wells, or Welcomes: Libraries in the Lives of Immigrants, Old and New

The Library History Round Table (LHRT) of the American Library Association (ALA) seeks papers for its Research Forum at the 2019 ALA Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C., June 20-25, 2019. The theme of the Forum will be re-examining the relationship between libraries and immigrants/immigration, in any country, any region of the world.

One of the most divisive topics in our current society is immigration policy and the issues and concerns stretch backwards throughout library history as well. Libraries have been present in the lives of immigrants in the United States (and potentially other countries) as institutions that were unfamiliar or unwelcoming (walls), sources of wisdom (oftentimes through immigrant children), and/or a welcome to a new community. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Acculturation, libraries, and the American middle class;

The role of immigrant children in helping their parents become introduced to libraries and to reading;

Specialized services introduced and developed to support immigrants’ information needs;

Working with the “foreign population,” in urban or rural settings;

The development of classification systems that were affected by immigration;

Readers’ advisory services for immigrants;

Children’s and/or youth services and the “foreign born;”

Libraries and internment/detainment camps.

LHRT welcomes submissions from researchers of all backgrounds, including students, faculty, and practitioners. Proposals are due on February 15, 2019. Each proposal must give the paper title, an abstract (up to 500 words), and the presenter’s one-page vita. Also, please indicate whether the research is in-progress or completed. The abstract should include a problem or thesis, as well as a statement of significance, objectives, methods/primary sources used for the research, and conclusions (or tentative conclusions for works in progress).

LHRT Research Committee will select up to three authors to present their completed work at the Forum. Completed papers are due May 15, 2019, and the Research Forum will likely occur on Sunday, June 23, 2019. All presenters will be notified of the submission outcome no later than May 31, 2019, and must register to attend the conference.